Bomb Scare Closes Pullman’s Main Street Suspicious Packages Found In Mailbox, Post Office; Bomb Squad Called In

A bomb scare involving seven packages closed the main street of this college town for much of Saturday afternoon, and led to the evacuation of a trailer park.

No explosive devices were found after a bomb squad from Spokane examined three suspicious packages found in a mail box and four found at the Pullman Post Office.

Grand Avenue, which was closed by police shortly after 1 p.m., was reopened to traffic about seven hours later.

“At approximately 8:30 p.m., the post office was declared safe,” Police Chief Ted Weatherly said in a news release.

An unknown number of residents who had been evacuated from the nearby Terrace Park Estates trailer court were allowed to return to their homes, police said.

The street closure caused huge traffic jams as more than 8,000 people were leaving the Washington-Washington State basketball game on the nearby WSU campus.

“It’s been pretty hairy considering it’s the main street in Pullman,” said Ann Archer of the police department.

Although police originally said they feared there might be more than seven packages, no others were found, Weatherly said.

The bomb scare had its origin in an incident at the post office on Friday, Weatherly said.

“It would appear postal authorities were concerned about mail addressed to a specific addressee who did not live in Pullman,” Weatherly said. “All seven packages in today’s incident were mailed to that address.”

But Weatherly refused to provide details and said all further information would come from the U.S. Postal Inspector’s office, which was investigating.

The first three packages were discovered by a postal carrier in a mailbox on the corner of Grand and Stadium Way about 1:15 p.m., Pullman police said.

The other four packages were found in the post office, located a mile away on Grand, a short time later.

Pullman police alerted the Spokane Police Department bomb squad, which arrived in the afternoon with a robot. The robot, nicknamed Elvis, has an arm that can move suspicious packages.